Of Wolves and Wolverines
by SwiftWhiteWolf
Summary: Has James Howlett finally met his match? This is a new, original fan fiction that I will be periodically adding new chapters to. It is an action/romance/comedy involving Wolverine from the Marvel Comics "X-Men" and my own fictional characters. I do not claim ownership to any of Marvel s characters, however, I have invented new characters to add to this story, which are my own.
1. Guardian

**Prologue: Guardian**

_Another day, another mission. The same old fight as usual. The X-Men work together to kick bad guy ass again. _Wolverine was feeling more than a little pessimistic and broody; as he crept down the hallway of Magneto`s latest underground facility. _Except today isn`t the same. Jamie`s involved this time, and we have to save her. I have to save her, because this whole thing is my fault. I wasn`t there and she got captured because of me. That poor kid, she was supposed to be able to rely on me, to trust someone._ He growled under his breath, furious with himself. Jamie was only nine, an orphan who`s biological parents had abandoned her when their baby turned out to be 'different'. Charles Xavier, Wolverine`s some-times boss and his long time friend, had found Jamie using his Cerebro program, and had taken her in at his school for gifted children. The academy had been specially designed and built for children and people like Jamie, those who had supernatural or unnatural abilities courtesy of evolution. The humans called these people 'mutants' or 'mutations', and usually had a rather unfriendly disposition towards the genetically gifted.

The little girl had taken a shine to Logan after a week or so at Xavier`s boarding school, and treated him almost like an older brother now. He felt strongly for the little one, honor bound to protect her, and wanted to see Jamie safe and happy. But Wolverine had let Jamie down, or so he felt. He`d gone out on a mission with Storm, Scott, Jean, and most of the other X-Men to save a bunch of humans from an attack launched by a powerful mutant anti-human organization known as M-Cell. M-Cell was a new enemy, and the X-Men had gone in en-masse since they hadn`t had much time to gather information on the group yet. During their siege, Magneto had taken advantage of the X-Men`s absence and kidnapped a group of Xavier`s students while they were out on a field trip. Said group happened to include Jamie. As soon as the X-Men`s main contingent had returned to the academy that served as their home base, they had learned of the problem. Xavier and most of the others had stayed behind at the institute to secure the boundaries and tend to the injured from their recent battle, while Wolverine and Scott lead the rescue mission with a small group. Their goal was to infiltrate Magneto`s facility, retrieve Jamie and the other students, and get the hell out of there as quickly and safely as possible. _As if. Nothing ever seems to go according to plan with this lot._ He grumbled silently to himself as he made his way further down the underground hallway.

Jean was coordinating the X-Men`s locations relative to each other and relaying from Storm the situation as it progressed at her end of the compound, while Wolverine and Scott were busy forging a clear route by taking down the guards, and searching for the children the old fashioned way. Storm was in charge of causing a distraction to attract the attention of Magneto`s remaining people. So far, Jean wasn`t having any luck locating the children with her telepathic powers; there was some type of interference blocking them. Wolverine had seen neither hide nor hair of Scott since they had parted directions to fan out their search, but according to Jean he was only a few corridors away in a different section, having a grand time scrambling security panels and cameras with his special eyesight. _Better hurry up, we probably don`t have much time left. There`s no telling what these bastards may have done to Jamie and the other kids since they dragged them here. _As he impatiently approached a corner at the end of the hall, Wolverine kept his eyes alert for cameras and guards. He disliked infiltration jobs, but Logan had to agree with Storm and Jean on this one; if they had all come barging in through the front door, Magneto could dispose of the students before the X-men even had a chance for a rescue attempt. Thus, Wolverine bit back his rising anger and some of his anxiety, and made an effort to be stealthy. There was a guard up ahead; he could see the edge of the man`s elbow sticking out from around the corner, and he scented the reek of stale sweat and cigarettes the punk had been smoking earlier from here. A grim smile bared Wolverine`s teeth as he crept closer in anticipation of combat. A satisfying gurgle came from the man`s throat as Logan punched the guard in the windpipe, knocking him clean out. Further down the hall he stalked, and there were two doors. One was at the end opposite Wolverine, and the other was about halfway down and to his right. Before he could decide which one to head through, a sizzling sound came from the door at the far end of the hall and the odor of scorched metal assaulted the X-Man`s sensitive nose. The electric security panel to one side of said door promptly exploded in a shower of blue and white sparks, but not before emitting a shrill alarm. A second later Scott, aka Cyclops kicked the door open and made his entry.

"Smooth move, dick head. You set off the damn alarm!" Wolverine growled at his comrade, not at all happy since their chances of getting out of here with the children safe had just been greatly slimmed.

"Shut up and let`s just find the kids and get out of here Logan, I don`t have time to put up with your crap." Cyclops snapped back, clearly just as angry with himself and as tense about the whole miserable situation. He began jogging towards the door halfway between them and Wolverine did likewise.

They really didn`t have time to argue, but if Jamie got hurt because of this, Wolverine swore right then and there (not for the first time) that he would kill Scott. The sandy-haired man paid Wolverine no mind as he set to work on the final door with his "enhanced" gaze. His patience gone; Wolverine roughly shoved his companion out of the way and Spartan kicked the door once, twice, and it smashed open with a tremendous crash. Both men dashed inside to find a mess of mutant guards scattered about, trying to defend themselves from a maelstrom of wind and lightning bolts, courtesy of Storm. Wolverine could see where she had smashed a hole in the far wall off to their left to get inside with lightning. Jean wasn`t too far off to the left of the cavernous research lab they had found their way in to, manipulating one of the guards to fight for her by taking control of his mind. Cyclops instantly ran in her direction to aid his lady-love, while Wolverine waded in to the fray, claws first. The X-Men faced off with Magneto`s cronies in a violent battle; computer equipment was smashed, mutants lobbed each other across the room, with blood and other things spraying the floor in the scuffle. Wolverine might have found himself having fun if the situation hadn`t been so dire; he was in his element fighting for something he believed in and for someone he wanted to protect.

"Up here on the second floor, Wolverine! I think I`ve found the holding cells!" Storm yelled to the man from her lofty perch, as she fended off another enemy with a bolt of lightning. The beautiful African-American woman gestured emphatically towards the stairs, her shoulder length white hair crackling with energy as it floated around her like an electrified halo. Wolverine swiftly made his way to and up the stairs, slashing in to some opponents and simply tossing others out of his way. He reached the top and bolted after Storm, they broke open the door on this level to find a row of laser-barred cells to their right stretching to the end of the medium-sized room. To their left was a line of six foot high, three foot round development pods in which some unidentifiable shapes were only half-formed and pulsating. Logan began running along the cell wall, stabbing the security panels next to the cages with his claws, while Storm began short circuiting them with pulses of electricity. He ran until he came to Jamie`s cage, recognizing her small, frightened form huddled up against a large furred shape that he couldn`t quite make out. Whatever it was, it was growling ferociously at the intruder, until Jamie cried out hoarsely;

"Logan! You came to save us! Thank God, I`m so scared! What`s going on out there?" Jamie rose from the furred shape`s side and dashed towards her rescuer, but was suddenly pulled back by the thing in the cage as an explosion rocked the entire facility. The blast shook dust from the ceiling and caused large chunks of concrete to fall, as another explosion sounded. Someone had activated the self-destruct mechanism and the entire place was coming down around them! One of the chunks of concrete landed right where Jamie had been standing next to Wolverine, he barely managed to roll out of the way. As the rough shaven, black haired X-man regained his feet, he saw Storm huddled protectively around two of the other kidnapped students a few cells down. Looking for Jamie he called out;

"We have to get out of here right now, Jamie, we have to go!" As Logan took a step towards Jamie`s cell, a great beast leaped past him with Jamie on its back. It was a black wolf, and a decent sized one at that. The canine`s shoulders came to mid-thigh on Wolverine, and the golden eyes that glared at him were ripe with threat. He advanced with his claws out, ready to tear in to the creature, when Jamie looked up from where she`d buried her head in the wolf`s fur and told him;

"I know, let`s go! You help Storm and the others, Wolf can carry me. Don`t hurt her please! She`s protected me since I got here, we can trust her." Jamie sounded so scared, and her face was streaked with dirt and tears, but she was determined, and her small hands were clenched in the wolf`s fur as if she would never let go. She was trying so hard to be brave, and Wolverine was proud of her. He aided Storm in gathering the other children and carried one who was unconscious in his arms, as the dark wolf sprinted towards the carnage of the main room and the exit with Jamie clinging to its mane. Along the way, Nightcrawler met up with their group and began teleporting the students and the wounded X-Men out. Hank, aka Beast, was doing a fine job enabling their exodus alongside reinforcements. Scott was carrying an unconscious Jean over his shoulder at a run towards a hole in the wall. Outside, Wolverine could already hear their enormous chopper waiting. Magneto hadn`t made an appearance this time, surprisingly. Logan was concerned with this, but much more worried about getting them all, especially Jamie, out of there before the complex blew up. He dashed after the wolf at full speed, and helped lift the students in to the chopper with the rest of their people. As they climbed aboard and began to lift off, Jamie slid off the wolf`s back and knelt on the floor.

A few feet off the ground, one of the surviving guards began firing at the helicopter, shooting right at Jamie. Time froze for Wolverine as he made to tackle the child to the floor, too late. However, the wolf had other plans; it jumped in front of the nine-year old mutant child. Five shots hit her directly, missing everything and everyone else. Her body jerked with each bullet, but she never moved out of the way, an unexpected guardian to the little girl. When the chopper was out of range, Wolverine watched the wolf crumple to the ground on her side with a whimper. Blood ran in thick ruby rivulets to the floor of the helicopter from her wounds, quickly forming a small pool. Jamie shrieked in horror and crawled to the wolf screaming;

"No, no, no! Logan help her, someone, please help her!" Her small frame shook with noisy sobs and her bright blue hair clung to her cheeks with the moisture of tears. She buried her hands in the wolf`s fur, almost in hysterics. "Wolf! Wolf, no! Don`t die! You can`t die! Logan, help!" Wolverine crouched behind Jamie, pulling her out of the way as a male mutant named Shenlong set to work on the wolf with a scalpel to dig out the bullets, and an elderly female named Kyree began to concentrate on sealing the wolf`s injuries. _Please let it be enough to save her, for Jamie`s sake._ Wolverine silently asked of the powers that be as he held poor Jamie and let the little girl sob in to his leather jacket.

**Chapter One: The Big, Bad Wolf**

Scott Summers was on edge as he paced continually back and forth in the small medical wing of Xavier`s School for Gifted Youngsters. He was driving himself mad with worry over Jean Grey-Summers, who still hadn`t regained consciousness yet. Two beds down lay a newcomer, bandaged from shoulder to waist in clean cotton cloth. Scott spared her a glance now, wondering at the strange woman, but more immediately worried about Jean. He was supposed to be watching over both of the women until they awakened, but honestly his heart was all for his wife. Her vitals were steady now, but she`d been hurt pretty badly during their most recent mission. One of her arms was broken in several places, and she had a concussion as well from being thrown in to a cement wall while fighting off Magneto`s guards during their rescue mission earlier that day.

It was full dark now, and nearly four hours had passed since the X-Men`s return to the School. In the medical ward, Jamie`s new guardian`s monitor was beeping quietly in time with her heartbeat to let the currently absent nurses know that she was still alive. During the helicopter ride back her heart had stopped two full minutes, Kyree had managed by some miracle to restore the woman`s pulse and continued working on her wounds. The stranger had dark reddish black hair that fell loose nearly to her waist. Her skin which was normally a fine shade of golden tan was pale, and one could see clearly from the way her ribs pressed under the bandages that she was malnourished. Scott had noticed this and wondered just how long she`d been in Magneto`s oh so tender care before the X-Men had liberated her during their rescue mission for the students. Right now though, he wasn`t paying her any attention. The wounded beauty`s muscles tensed in her forearms, and her hands clenched in the sheets. Her nails had been replaced with lethal, two-inch long black claws. Cyclops didn`t notice when the woman`s golden caramel eyes snapped open, the pupils mere pinpricks of black, and her chest rose suddenly with a gasp. He did manage to pull himself from his trance staring at Jean when the other`s monitor started going crazy, and she bolted up off the hospital bed, ripping the tubes and sensor pads from her abused body. Scott`s cry of alarm was stifled as her elbow met the back of his head with such force that his world went temporarily black.

Wolf `s gaze darted around the room as she huddled against the wall, her body was tense with alarm and pain. She was crouched next to the door, holding her throbbing elbow. _That guy has a hard skull. Where in the nine hells am I? What is this place, and where is Jamie? Jamie! Shit, I have to find that poor little girl; I have to keep her safe! Who are these people? Not the ones who saved us. Saved us? Did we escape? This place doesn`t look familiar, but Magneto has hundreds of labs all over the country, so we could be anywhere. They might even be experimenting on Jamie right now, I have to find her! Not that sweet little kid! I won`t let them hurt her!_ Panic was a hard, uncomfortable knot in the pit of Wolf`s stomach as she shoved the door open and stepped in to the outer hall. The entire place was white, no decorations, no windows, artificial lighting. She was obviously underground, the young woman gathered. Adrenaline had her heart hammering so hard inside her chest she thought it might crack her ribs. One end of the hallway was a dead end; the other appeared to lead to a stairwell. The woman sprinted for the stairwell, her body a mass of pain as she ran barefoot in only bandages and a pair of someone else`s sweat pants. There was another person at the top of the stairs, a male she didn`t recognize. He tried to stop her, seeing the obviously injured state she was in, and she shoved him over the rail. His head hit the wall and he lay still, though his chest was still moving so he was alive. The poor man wouldn't be getting up to come after her any time soon, however. Wolf streaked up to the second floor, her long hair streaming behind her as she stumbled at breakneck pace after the lingering scent of the little girl she knew as Jamie. There were a hundred other odors all over the place; this building, whatever and where ever it was, saw a lot of traffic. By the quality of the aromas, and her keen nose, the woman was able to determine that almost all of them belonged to mutants; as to her, they smelled differently from humans.

She rounded a corner and encountered three more people blocking her way unintentionally. The first was completely blindsided by her closed fist making firm contact with his temple, and he fell to the floor with a groan. The second, a young male in his late teens, made to grab and restrain Wolf, but she stomped on his foot and sent him sprawling with a knee to his nose when he instinctively bent over said foot. The boy crashed in to a girl about the same age, who managed to fire off a blast of force from her open palm that Wolf only narrowly dodged because the girl was falling at the time. She catapulted past, stepping on the girl`s hand and probably breaking a few fingers in the process, and raced up another, shorter flight of stairs to her left. There were windows now, and the tastefully decorated hallway was lined with wooden doors, all of which were closed but one at the end of the hall on the left side. Jamie`s scent wafted from this door, and her protector raced towards it. As Wolf dashed towards the door, she passed several banks of windows to her right that overlooked what appeared to be a well-appointed courtyard. A low growl came from her slim body as she sprung at the opening, diving through and crouching near the entrance. She kicked the door closed behind her with a sweep of her left leg, so she had a moment`s barrier before more reinforcements could storm in.

There was Jamie! Sitting at a table looking scared with her blue, jaw length hair all tousled and her eyes red and puffy as if she`d been crying. Those red rimmed, turquoise eyes sat huge in her innocent, heart-shaped face as she huddled in the wooden chair she was seated in, her knees pulled up to her chest. There was a large, well muscled man with night black hair sitting at the other side of the table, between Jamie and the door, wearing ripped blue jeans and a tight black wife beater tank. His bare arms sported a faint tracery of scars (healing wounds from the rescue mission but she didn`t know that), and he wore a black leather watch on his right hand. Those same arms corded with muscles as he used them to lever himself up from his seat to stand and turn to face the unexpected guest. He never got the chance. The expression on Jamie`s face had Wolf in a white hot rage in a split second, and the woman slammed her uninjured elbow with extra force in to the back of the man`s skull, meaning to concuss and drop him cold. Her other hand grabbed his right shoulder to help him on his way to the floor. Wolf jumped over the square table to grab Jamie, and landed on the balls of her feet with the girl safely held in her arms.

"It`s okay now Jamie, I`m here and I won`t let these bastards touch you. We`re getting out of here!" She reassured the young mutant, who was clinging to her with both arms and showed no signs of ever letting go.

"You`re okay! Why`d you punch Logan like that though? Did he do something bad?" Jamie`s eyes were wide as saucers as she stared from inches away at her guardian with an inquisitive, joyful visage. Once Wolf registered the words she was even more confused, her body tensed to protect her charge again as the man on the floor sat up. The drugs the nurses had hooked her up to to keep her docile in the medical ward hadn`t worn off yet. Mix that with whatever Magneto`s techs had shot her up with and she had a whole cocktail of disorientation pumping through her veins. _Wait, how the hell is he sitting up?_ She`d fractured skulls and concussed larger opponents than he with that same maneuver before! Another low growl trickled from her throat in response to Logan`s recovery.

"Who in blazes are you, and what the hell is your problem?!" Wolverine snarled, rising to his feet unsteadily, his adamantium-coated claws slipping out like knives from the backs of his hands. The man was definitely conscious, although he was a bit dazed from whatever had hit the back of his head. His vision was wavering back and forth, and he was only getting a blurry impression of his attacker. He was pissed, in pain, and really, really confused. Not generally a great combination for a man who already possessed a reputation for having a bad attitude. _What is she doing with Jamie? Does she mean to kidnap her again? Where is her shirt?_ Logan took a step forward, meaning to grab Jamie back from this stranger who had just decked him one of the best blows he`d ever been dealt by a girl, but Jamie squealed frantically;

"Logan, no! Don`t hurt her, she`s not gonna hurt me! It`s Wolf, look at her eyes! She just changed back, that`s why she looks different now! Wolf, it`s alright, it`s Logan, _look_! He`s the one who saved us, remember?" The child plastered herself to the young, fierce looking woman as if afraid that her other guardian might try to remove her from Wolf`s protective embrace.

"Jamie what are you talking about?" James 'Logan' Howlett demanded of the youngster, worry and confusion mixing on his handsome face. Every one of his toned muscles was tense with barely suppressed aggression. Likewise, Wolf`s arms were tensed defensively around Jamie and her own body was singing with equal parts tension and pain. What little color that had been in her face was draining from it as her brief burst of adrenaline began to recede. She relaxed a little at Jamie`s words. The young woman didn`t quite recognize the man, though there was something familiar about him. She hadn`t gotten a good look at their male rescuer, and through the eyes of her other shape she saw only in shades of black, white, and gray. She would have recalled the black woman with white hair and the way she`d helped shield the other captives as they had all run for the waiting helicopter to escape, though. As the woman`s posture calmed a little, Logan`s body responded and his claws retracted. He took a closer look at his attacker. She was slender and toned, if a little emaciated, and her torso from both shoulders down to her stomach was wrapped in bandages, including her breasts, which to him looked about the perfect size to cup in his hands. _What? Why am I thinking about her boobs?_ He shook his head and squinted a moment, he noticed she was wearing borrowed sweatpants and that her left cheek was bruised and had a bump across it as if she`d been punched. The edges of a black tribal tattoo wrapped around the left side of her neck and over her left shoulder and collar bone. She had pointed ears, like an elf, and small pointed claws instead of fingernails. She was actually rather attractive, in a savage sort of way. Her hair hung free and wildly tangled, and she had stitches and a butterfly bandage above her right eyebrow. The eyes themselves he remembered now; threatening, stormy, dangerous eyes that were a deep shade of gold like butterscotch or raw honey. The exact same shade as those of the wolf who had carried and protected Jamie during their escape from Magneto`s lab. This was that same creature? _So what, she`s a shapeshifter?_ He put his thoughts in to words with a low, gravelly voice;

"So you`re the wolf that took those bullets to save Jamie? You look a hell of a lot different now. Who are you? Why did you attack me if we`re on the same side?" Wolverine inquired gruffly, rubbing the back of his madly throbbing head. The woman replied in a voice so hoarse it obviously hadn`t been used in months, weighted with her confusion and physical pain;

"Yes. Jamie named me 'Wolf' while we were held captive together. Magneto threw her in with me hoping I`d tear her up, I think. I couldn`t talk or change back to this form because they had me pumped full of special drugs. I still can`t change back all the way, as you can see. My real name is Aiden Kazakov." She had to clear her throat to continue, her voice raspy and throat aching as she gently let go of Jamie and sank to sit on the floor. Her legs were shaking now that the adrenaline was wearing off. "I was trying to knock you out so I could escape with Jamie. I thought we were still Magneto`s prisoners in a different complex, and that you were one of his men about to torture or interrogate Jamie. You have the hardest skull I`ve ever elbowed. I don`t remember you, but since Jamie seems to trust you, I take it we aren`t in any immediate danger and I apologize for slugging you like that. Whatever your people had in that IV has my head spinning still." She slowly shook her head, trying to clear it. _He has a predator`s eyes_, she observed, examining the large man. He was about six foot four, a head taller than herself, and had the darkest eyes she`d ever seen in a very human face. They were such a deep shade of brown that they appeared black, almost as black as his hair, which was about two inches long and sort of shaggy. He was looking a bit a rough around the edges, a thick five o'clock stubble covering his jaw and part of his cheeks. She saw that he had a tribal tattoo on his left bicep, and noticed he also had a thin, faded scar crossing one eyebrow. His nose looked like it had been broken a few times and healed a little crooked, and he was wearing what appeared to be black motorcyclist`s boots. Now that she had a better look at him, her first instinctual thought that he was one of her enemy`s men and meant to torture Jamie didn`t make any sense. Aiden hadn`t been thinking clearly when she barged in so suddenly though, her thoughts were still in partial disorder even now. Her need to see Jamie safe and the sharp throb in her elbow were the only things keeping her conscious, and the all over body ache from her still healing injuries was wearing heavily on the shapeshifter. She could feel warm, wet blood beginning to seep through her bandages again, and moved a hand to put pressure over the worst of the wounds, which was on the right side of her rib cage about halfway down her torso. She was still using her other arm to brace herself against the floor so that she didn`t just keel right over on her back. Before she could open her mouth again to ask this man what exactly has happened, rapid footsteps resounded out in the hall. There were at least four people running towards Wolf and Wolverine`s impromptu conference room as the world started to go fuzzy and dark around the edges of her vision. She heard Jamie cry out and saw a streamer of blue moving out of her peripherals before she was staring at the ceiling. Then the woman was staring at nothing at all, because her head hit the floor and she passed out.

Logan wasn`t quite sure what to do as Storm, Xavier, Scott, and Kitty Pryde flooded in to the room. His gaze darted between the woman now out cold and bleeding on the floor, Jamie, and the group now standing in the doorway. He frowned and informed his peers;

"I`m not sure how she got up here, or how exactly to explain this, but she was obviously disoriented, and now she`s unconscious. I`m assuming that`s from her injuries. We need to get her back down to the medical wing and get some fresh bandages on those wounds."

"We`ll have to keep a better guard on her this time, Scott let her get loose in the first place." Kitty cast a harsh glare at her elder, her tone disdainful. She wasn`t the only one who was angry with the Cyclops, he`d put them all in danger by putting his personal feelings above his duties to the rest of his team. Xavier was disappointed with Scott as well, but he didn`t see any good coming from chastising the other man when their new guest was bleeding all over the carpet.

"Kitty, you have made your point, but we have more pressing matters at hand this moment. Scott`s discipline will have to wait until later. Now, time is of the essence; Logan would you kindly carry our guest back to the medical wing? Kitty, I believe you would be most helpful if you looked after Jamie until we can get her friend back in to a more stable condition. Storm, would _you_ kindly attend to the students who were injured? Scott, I need you to find Kyree and get her down to the hospital wing where I will meet you all in a few moments." Charles Xavier`s words were spoken with a clarity that naturally made others pause and listen. The headmaster was possessed of both an extremely keen mind and an inborn charisma; when he requested something be done, there was little room for negotiation, especially where the safety of his students was concerned. He rolled himself over to Jamie in his wheelchair and tried to calm her down. A few moments later Kitty joined him in that task as the others went off to their appointed assignments. Logan knelt next to the woman who`d attacked him only a few moments previously and scooped her slender form up in both arms, cradling her against his broad chest and laying her head in the crook of his neck and shoulder. He made a noise of surprise, she was lighter than he had expected, even taking her current condition in to account. Being careful not to jostle her around too much, he exited the room and headed towards the recovery ward two floors below.


	2. The Complex Truth

**Of Wolves & Wolverines Pt 2**

Aiden Kazakov`s eyes finally opened as she lay in yet another hospital bed. She was getting really sick of waking up like this; not knowing where she was or what was going on. When she could make sense of her surroundings, she quickly noticed two things. Firstly, she was in a different hospital bed from the first time she`d risen from sleep; this one appeared to be in some sort of solitary medical isolation ward, since hers was the only bed present. Secondly, the young woman observed that there was a rough shaven, black haired man watching her from the plastic chair next to her bed. He was wearing rumpled blue jeans that were lightly spotted with dried blood, and a clean, black cotton tee shirt. Aiden recognized him as the man she had accidentally attacked the last time she`d woken up in a medical treatment facility and escaped. Why he was here though, and where exactly "here" was, she wasn`t sure.

Logan had put down the novel he`d been reading about the American Civil War and tucked it under his chair. He was now watching the woman as she woke up, with his elbows resting lightly on his knees and his feet slightly spread apart.

"Good to see you`re finally awake." He greeted her; both his face and his tone were neutral. The lean, muscled man observed as his current ward as she struggled in to a sitting position against the pillows, her hands clenched in to pale fists and her face showing suspicion. Her caramel gaze darted around the room, focusing more now that the sedatives were finally beginning to wear off from earlier.

"Where am I? And where`s Jamie?" She inquired bluntly, not liking that she once again had no real clue as to where she was or if the little girl she`d grown attached to was okay or not. It was one of the most awful feelings in the world, the emotion that only a parent who is worried for their child can understand.

"You`re in the medical isolation ward of Charles Xavier`s School for Gifted Youngsters. Jamie is three floors above us right now tucked safely in to her dorm bed with her roommate Cassie. I put her there myself, and if you`re worried about Jamie I can take you to see her in the morning before classes start. Would you like some water? You`re voice is hoarse." Logan was being very careful to maintain a neutral tone, he wasn`t sure how this woman was going to react now that she was conscious again. After what had happened the first time with Scott Summers, he figured her for a 'shoot first, and ask questions later' kind of gal.

"Is it drugged? If it`s clean, then sure. If not, you might as well drink it yourself because I`m not touching it. I don`t need any more of that shit in my system, it`s making me feel like micro waved road kill." Aiden rasped, glaring at the man in front of her as he chuckled at her comparison.

"It`s clean, see for yourself. For the record, you look like death warmed over. You`re lucky to be alive after that last stunt you pulled trying to bash my skull in, and you were fortunate before that after being shot several times with a high caliber assault rifle." He reached over to the small plastic table at her bedside where a pitcher of cool water and a stack of sanitary wrapped Styrofoam cups sat, pouring her a glass of water and refilling his own. Logan handed Wolf her cup and she took it with slightly shaking hands before raising it to her nose to sniff. Satisfied, she emptied it in small sips. It was the cleanest thing she`d tasted in months, so good that she almost wanted to cry with relief. Instead she settled for allowing Logan a small smile and replying;

"Thanks. You`ve cleaned up well yourself with that blood spattered all over your one eyed jeans. Does that back of your head still hurt?" It was a catty remark, and she meant it to be. She`d been through enough shit in the past four months to kill a normal human being and then some. Now she was being guarded in a strange place by a man she wasn`t sure she could trust, and Jamie was gone. The man called Logan hadn`t been lying as far as she could tell about Jamie`s location or condition, but the residue of tranquilizers in her body was throwing off Aiden`s normally keen sense of smell. Her head felt like it was full of fluff and bits of other soft, fuzzy things. She had one of the worst cases of cotton mouth she`d had in her entire life, and her whole body ached from just sitting up still. It felt like she`d been hit by a Mack truck hauling at least two tons worth of cargo. The sensation, to say the very least, was not pleasant at all.

"It`s your blood, by the way. I carried you back down here after you passed out a little over three hours ago. The Headmaster is having me guard you so you don`t kill yourself trying to escape again. And yeah, the back of my head still hurts. How`s your elbow feel?" Wolverine could do catty too, he wasn`t exactly in the best of moods. Here he`d just gotten Jamie back to safety, and no sooner was that accomplished than the woman he`d been trying to save that had protected the poor kid had attempted to beat him senseless and was currently barely breathing. He had an anemic nine year old to take care of, worried sick about her new 'guardian', who he now also had to compete with. He had Charles concerned over the safety of his students, a mess of team members still recovering from recent attacks and missions, and Scott Summers riding his ass because his briefs were all twisted up about his wife. On top of all that, Wolverine was supposed to be looking after this woman, whom the X-men knew next to nothing about. He was a little frustrated too.

"Like I rammed it in to a block of concrete. It`s about the same as the rest of my body right now. Sorry for bleeding all over your pants. I take it that`s why you`re wearing a different shirt now?" Aiden did feel a little bad for him, now that she was clear headed enough to pick up on the anxiety in the man`s tone and the strain of tension in his posture. Carefully, she scooted closer to the edge of her bed and pored herself another glass of water, her arms visibly shaking now. She had to put the Styrofoam cup down on the nightstand before she spilled it everywhere, and rest for a moment before she could drink it. Standing up was completely out of the question, and frustration made her pretty brow crease.

Logan sighed, easing back in to his chair a bit, he could see now that she was going to be too weak to attempt another escape, and she knew it too. "Yeah. You soaked the other one; I had to throw it out. There was no way it was coming clean after all that blood. You mind answering a few questions? Charles would like to know how you wound up in Magneto`s facility. I want to know how you ended up with Jamie and so bent on protecting her." He gauged Wolf`s reaction, and her current strength by how much effort she was putting in to sipping her cup of water. He took a swig of his own, downing half of it and waiting for her reply.

"I`ll answer your questions if you answer mine. And if there`s any way you can get me some kind of edible food down here, I`ll even tell you what you want to know. No tricks up my sleeve, deal?" She raised her dark eyebrows, feigning innocence. Logan raised one brow in response, independent of his other one. He stood and walked over to the door not too far away, opened it, and walked out. A few moments later he returned to find Aiden watching the door with a curious expression. He pulled his chair closer to the bed before sitting down, leaning back, and crossing his muscular arms over his broad chest.

"We`ve got a deal. They`re going to bring you something in a bit. Now, how did you come to be in Magneto`s oh-so-tender care, Miss Kazakov?" Aiden took another swallow from her cup before responding;

"I was out on assignment, photographing some wildlife in the Rocky Mountains for the magazine I worked for. I had planned on staying in the mountains for a week or so, hoping to get some good shots of the native animal species. About half way through the second night, I heard rustling outside of my tent. I ignored it at first, but it became louder of the next few minutes, and finally I heard a woman`s scream from my immediate right. I grabbed my flashlight and my bowie knife and ran out to see what was going on. I was attacked from behind, some kind of dart stuck in to my shoulder and the world went dark. When I woke up, I was chained to an operating table in a paper gown with a bunch of iv`s and sensors stuck in me, and a group of mutants wearing lab coats hustling around. They were experimenting on me, seemed to be interested in my blood. Luckily they underestimated me the first time ad I broke free, running for the nearest door. They hit me with a stun rod until I passed out. When I came to again I was drugged up with so many sedatives I could barely move, stuffed in a cell with some kind of lasers for bars." She had to pause for a moment to catch her breath and take a drink. After a few minutes, Wolverine told her;

"Go on, what happened after that? What were they using your blood for? How did you and Jamie end up together?" His expression belied his intense interest, Logan was obviously on edge wanting to know as many details as Aiden could recall.

"They experimented on me again, more times than I can remember. The second time I overcame the drugs, I shifted in to my other form. I think that is what they were most interested in. They put me through so many different kinds of tests, to see how strong I was, how fast I could heal, if I had any other shapes I could change in to, everything. It seems that they finally realized I`m not a mutant after maybe the first month. I changed when the moon was full, and that lead to an entire additional round of experiments. They discovered they could keep me trapped as a wolf with the right combination and amount of sedatives, and then they began throwing others in a sort of arena with me. It became a daily battle of gladiator style, survival of the fittest, fights from there. Magneto seemed most interested in trying to force me in to biting my opponents. I think he was hoping that I would infect them, but it doesn`t work on mutants, and I`ve never bitten a human before." She stopped there, seeing the confusion on Logan`s face.

"You`re not a mutant then? What are you? You aren`t human, that`s for sure." His brow was knitted together somewhere between bewilderment and disbelief.

"You are right to say I`m not human. I never have been. I was born this way, both of my parents were the same way. I couldn`t tell you why or much about them, since they died in a fire when I was Jamie`s age. It`s hard to explain, and harder to believe. I am what in my homeland is known as a 'Volfier'. Local lore says that people like me are the result of curses. We change in to animals under the full moon, when at any other time we walk in the shape of humans. Those that are born, like myself, are able to control our changes. We can shift outside of the full moon, whenever we chose, and we aren`t limited to changing all the way. We also recover much faster than the second generation Volfier, which most cultures have accepted as "Werewolves". In truth, these "werewolves" are the result of a Volfier biting a human and 'infecting' them. We can transfer our condition on to humans, but at a cost. The second generation has no control over their changes, and when they do change, they become vicious, blood thirsty beasts. Sometimes with a penchant for human flesh. None of us know why this happens, but as a result, it is considered taboo to change a human. If we infect one, we are supposed to kill them. If we come across a werewolf, we are encouraged to kill it. There aren`t that many of us left around the globe, and the few that are live mostly in small, secluded communities with others of our kind. I believe that Magneto was trying to find a way to use my condition to synthesize a drug that would change humans in to mutants, but I don`t have any proof." Aiden was interrupted by the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway from outside the closed door.

Wolverine went to answer the door when a knock came, turning this information over in his head and attempting to process it. He could smell that she wasn`t lying, but it was still hard to believe. He`d encountered other creatures of a supposedly "supernatural" persuasion before, but he hadn`t thought that people like Aiden Kazakov actually existed. Logan took the tray of food the unseen aid had brought down and carried it over to the 'Volfier'. Between the two of them, they managed to situate the tray so that Aiden could eat without his help. Their conversation of question and answer continued as she slowly ate the bowl of chicken noodle soup she`d received. Logan learned that Magneto had thrown Jamie in with "Wolf" in hopes that she would bite and change the girl, another sick experiment. Instead, Aiden had attacked the guards and prevented them from taking Jamie away for more testing on several occasions during the two weeks the child had been held captive. Over that time the two had struck a deep and profound friendship and affection for each other, in ways adopting each other. When Wolverine asked Aiden about her past before her capture she refused to elaborate until a later date, after she had seen Jamie and believed she could trust Logan more firmly. He had grudgingly agreed and answered her inquiries about the X-Men, her current location at their facilities, what they wanted with her, how Jamie had come to join them, and Charles` School. After four exhausting hours, Logan finally left her to rest, trading off guard with another of the X-Men.


	3. Pieces of the Past

**Of Wolves & Wolverines Pt3**

Aiden Kazakov could not sleep. Instead, she lay awake in a strange bed surrounded by softly beeping medical equipment and stared at the white drop-tile ceiling above her. There was a guard on post sitting next to the room`s only exit, but Aiden had no wish for conversation and they were trying their best to ignore each other. Wolf was too worried about Jamie to get anything resembling restful shut eye. She hadn`t seen the little blue haired girl since the previous morning, and for some reason that was really bothering her. It was true that Jamie didn`t belong to Aiden by blood, but the two had grown so close during their short time together that the volfier thought of Jamie like a daughter, Her maternal instincts were simply too strong to resist. Kazakov`s real daughter was dead, as was the child`s father as far as she knew. Her mind flashed back to that horrific day a few tears ago, as it always seemed to do whenever she thought of her flesh and blood offspring.

_Aiden Kazakov, special operations agent, watched from the front lobby of her office building as the familiar vehicle pulled up. A smile broke across her normally stern face as her toddler and her husband waved at her from the back seat when she stood up and began walking towards the glass doors. Their family friend Cristos tipped his baseball cap to Aiden from the driver`s seat, before he turned the car off. An instant later the entire car exploded, and so did Aiden Kazakov`s heart. A wordless scream of horror and anguish escaped her pretty mouth as she ran for the now shattered front door and the smoldering wreckage of the car. Bands of steel constricted suddenly around her middle, holding her back. Others joined the effort in an attempt to prevent the seasoned female agent from what had probably been an attempt on her life. The sharp stab of a hypodermic needle in the side of her neck quickly faded as the powerful tranquilizer pulled her under._

The young woman came out of her flashback nightmare with a jolt, sitting bolt upright in the hospital bed. As she looked around in the semi-darkness Wolf realized that she had fallen asleep. It appeared as though only a few short hours had passed. Automatically she peered to her right through the gloom and spotted the guard reading a magazine using a clip on book light in the nearby corner.

"What time is it?" Kazakov asked in a voice rough from sleep. The guard flinched visibly with surprise in his plastic chair; he`d obviously been very engrossed in his reading material. Blinking slowly, he lowered it for a moment and checked his watch.

"Six twenty-five in the morning." He responded in a quiet tone. The elder man folded his magazine closed, stood, and stretched. His back cracked as footsteps were heard from the hallway and a knock came at the door. "Shift change." The man mumbled. Both the guard and Aiden stared at the portal for about half a second. They moved at the same time. Aiden shoved the blanket off her legs and swung them over the edge of the bed. Clad in borrowed flannel pajamas; she moved quickly enough that she managed to grab the clean clothes at the end of the bed and disappear behind the changing curtain before her warden had made it to the door.

"Jakob, open the door." Logan Howlett`s familiar voice could be clearly heard on the other side. 'Jakob' was looking back and forth from where Aiden had vanished to the door. Frowning, the forty year old unlocked the entrance with a digitized keycard and let Logan in.

The volfier hand yanked a black tee shirt on over her bandaged torso and was struggling in to a pair of faded blue jeans on the other side of the curtain. She stepped out from behind the curtain just as Wolverine was asking Jakob where she was.

"Oh, there you are." Logan said, sounding relieved. The tone didn`t match his harried expression.

"Can I see her now? Can I? Is she awake?!" A stream of high pitched inquiries came from behind Wolverine, and Wolf caught a glimpse of sapphire blue hair. Her heart skipped a beat and Aiden stepped forward only once. A wild squeal heralded Jamie`s arrival only a second before the little girl managed to squeeze past Logan anyways and in to the room. Jakob gave Wolverine a pitying look and left, likely off to bed. Jamie sprinted the short distance to where Kazakov was standing and bounded in to her waiting arms. Wolf ignored the sharp pain in her injuries as she caught Jamie and the girl squeezed her around the middle tightly enough to make Wolf`s ribs protest. The woman inhaled her adopted baby girl`s scent and buried her nose in the child`s hair. Jamie was so happy and relieved to see her guardian whole and alive that she was crying.

"I was so worried I`d never get to see you again!" The young mutant hiccupped in to Aiden`s shoulder as her feet dangled off the ground.

"Shh, shh. It`s alright now. I`m not going anywhere honey-girl. I`m okay now little one just sore and healing. You don`t ever have to worry, I won`t leave you." She told the child in soothing tones as she eased her back down until the girl`s sneakers touched the floor. Jamie outright refused to let go and clung to Wolf`s legs. The lycan laid a gentle hand on Jamie`s blue hair and began stroking it reassuringly to calm her.

Wolverine watched from where he was leaning against the wall near the doorway. Something in his chest tightened as he did so; seeing Jamie cry usually pissed him off because it meant that she`d been hurt. But this time he wasn`t sure what to call the emotion he felt, this time Jamie`s tears were those of relief. Logan didn`t really trust Wolf yet since he felt he did not know enough about her. At the same time though Jamie trusted her, and it was obvious that the strange woman cared deeply for the child. Why exactly she had bonded so intensely and quickly with the mutant child he did not know either, but it seemed to make them both happier. The man hated to interrupt the moment, but Jamie would need to get to class in a few hours, and he had promised the nine year old that she could give Wolf a tour and they could all eat breakfast together before then. With a small hidden smile tugging at one corner of his mouth he walked over and ruffled Jamie`s hair to draw both females` attention.

"Hey, kiddo. If you keep this up we`re all going to miss breakfast. Didn`t you still want to give 'Wolf' a tour?" Jamie looked up at the tall man whom she was beginning to think of as a father figure with wet eyes. She was still clinging to Wolf`s leg, but not quite so tightly now.

"Sorry Logan, we can go now." Her straight sapphire locks bobbed wildly as she spun back around and grabbed Aiden`s hand. The volfier seemed unsurprised at this; and smiled. Jamie was grinning now, sorrows completely forgotten now that she had both of the people she loved most in the world back.

The three of them then toured most of the school`s interior. They began in the dining hall so they could all eat together before too many others showed up, and proceeded through the rest of the institute. Jamie proudly showed off her dorm room to Wolf. Aside from the four poster bed there wasn`t much to show off on Jamie`s side of the room. She didn`t really have much to call her own but a sketch book, a box of colored pencils, her school supplies, and a few changes of clothes. The little girl had come to Xavier`s School for Gifted Youngsters as an orphan; she`d been abandoned by her single mother when the woman had found out her daughter was a mutant. As for Jamie`s father, he had run off a few years after she was born, and hadn`t been around much then or come back looking for his kid since. Jamie didn`t seem too bothered by this; she couldn`t really remember him and she thought she liked Logan better anyways. She thought she liked Aiden a lot better than her biological mamma too; she voiced as much while she, Aiden, and Logan were walking to class together.

"My momma lady never used to take me to class or walk around school with me like you. This is fun!" The nine year old told Wolf, as she skipped along cheerfully next to her. At hearing this, Logan frowned and Aiden`s eyebrows shot up with surprise.

"Is that so? My 'momma lady' never took me to school either, but we didn`t have schools like these back where I came from. In fact, most of the kids in my home town never really went to school, we were taught at home whatever our parents knew." Wolf told the child conversationally with a small smile. Surprise flitted across Logan`s face for a moment before he frowned slightly again, wondering where exactly this woman was from. Jamie`s eyes became huge and she stopped skipping so she could walk backwards and watch Aiden while they talked.

"You mean you never got to go to art class? Or learn about math and science? What did your mamma and papa teach you?" The girl was fascinated, she wondered if Aiden`s parents had been like her momma lady, if they had been mean or not. The young woman replied with a ring of amusement to her tone;

"Not until I was about eleven or so. I caught up pretty quickly though. My mother taught me how to recognize plants and wildlife, to make healing poultices and bandage wounds, how to sing and make bird calls, how to waltz a little, and how to cook. My father taught me how to hunt and fish, how to build fires and shelters, and how to read and write a bit. They were kind, simple people, who lived by their own means off the land in a tiny wooden house in the woods. Neither of them had a formal education, and back then that didn`t seem to matter much. Those days are a world away sadly." A wistful expression came over the woman`s features and she looked sad to Jamie before she smiled again as Jamie grabbed her hand and they continued down the hallway.

"Do you ever miss your momma and papa Aiden?" The blue haired youth inquired softly, gazing up at the lady she was beginning to think of as a mother figure with curiosity.

"Sure I do, once in a while. Mostly when it rains now, because it reminds me of how we all used to stay inside on those days and my father would tell stories of their travels together before I came along, or they would dance and I would get to bake sweet bread with my mother while my father would read one of the old books from his collection. Why, are you missing your mamma right now?" She asked as their group neared the door to Jamie`s classroom.

"Not really. I guess maybe a little I miss the sound of her voice, but other than that there isn`t much to miss. I like you better anyways." The nine year old had an oddly uncharacteristic look in her eye, one that said she thought more maturely about this matter than most children her age would have.

"I`m not truly sure what to say to that little one." Wolf told her, surprised again at just how blunt Jamie could be sometimes. She wondered if it was just because of her youth, and she didn`t understand, or if it was something else that gave the child a lack of verbal filters when she spoke. Jamie certainly had an inquisitive mind; she was always asking questions. But occasionally the volfier questioned if it was simple childhood innocence, or if maybe Jamie just didn`t think before words came out of her that made the child so straightforward.


End file.
